Originally Posted by
slimothy
One other bit of advice for going the regional route: make sure that you are able to live in domicile in the first year! I decided to join a regional that has NO west coast presence, and I live in San Diego. Commuting for poverty pay is bogus!
I second that. I left active duty in 2004 and spent a year commuting from San Diego to DFW to be on reserve at American Eagle at like $18,000/year. Paying out of pocket for hotels & crash pads. Brutal. Of course I didn't have a military pension to fall back on, so after a year I had to bail out on the whole deal. Now looking to get back in the game again, but I am staying way clear of the regional route, even at $40 per hour. Still an insult to any pilot. But if you don't have any other way to build hours, well.....you gotta do what you gotta do.